


When you find you

by ShyAudacity



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Confusion, Derek Saves Stiles, Goodbyes, Homecoming, Hospitals, Hurt Stiles, Injury, Leaving Home, M/M, Pack Feels, Tattooed Stiles, Tattoos, quotes, sterek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-09-22
Packaged: 2018-02-18 08:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2341538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“No signs of someone who expects to be back.” Derek whispers, remembering his mothers favorite song. </p><p>Or</p><p>The one where Stiles leaves without telling anyone and Derek has to come to the rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When you find you

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this one for a long time and I have had the idea in my head for even longer. I really hope you like it. Any mistakes are my own fault.

Pack nights are a sacred ritual for the Hale/McCall pack. Every other Friday of the month they all gather at Derek's loft for a movie night. It normally turns into a sleepover, but no ones complaining. The pack hasn't had a pack night since the latest supernatural run in, so everyone is looking forward to spending time together without some demon coming out of the shadows or a guy with no mouth trying to kill them with a tomahawk. 

Everyone is here except for Scott and Stiles. Lydia and Malia are sitting on the couch playing with each others hair. For whatever reason Isaac, who magically returned from France, is teaching Liam to play chess. Derek is finishing up with the snacks when Scott strolls in.

“Hey, where's Stiles?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean where is he, dumb ass?”

“He's not here yet?” Scott says confused.

“No.” Derek said, looking at the couch. “Malia, I thought he told you he was coming with Scott.”

“Yeah, he did, last night on the phone. Why?”

“He told me he would meet me here.” Scott says.

“When?” 

“Last night.”

The only reason you don't show up to pack night is if you've been kidnapped or you're nearly dead. If by some off chance either of those things happen, pack night turns into a search party to keep you, and the rest of Beacon Hills alive. An unsettling feeling came over the pack.

“Was that the last time both of you spoke with him?” they both nodded.

“Has anyone heard at all from Stiles today?” Derek asked. He was met with silence and shaking heads. He looked directly at Scott and Malia. “You two come with me, were going to his house. The rest of you stay here in case he shows up.”

A minute later the three of them are packed into Derek's truck. Malia is calling Stiles and Scott is calling the sheriff while Derek speeds towards the house, not caring about the speed limit what so ever.

“It keeps going straight to voice mail, his phone must be off.” Malia states.

“Well then keep calling, he has to turn on his phone eventually.” Derek replies. He looks to Scott. “Have you gotten a hold of the sheriff?”

“There's no answer at the house. I'm go-.” Scott's phone starts ringing just as they pull into the Stilinski drive way. “Sheriff? Hey, it's Scott, is Stiles around? No ones heard from him at all today and-... wait he what?”

“What? What is he saying?” Derek demands. 

“I'll go check his room.” Malia says flying out the car at an alarming speed.

“Yeah, no I understand... I guess. You too Sheriff.” Scott says hanging up.

“What did he say? Where's Stiles?”

“He left.”

“He what?” Derek yelled. “When? Why? What did he tell you?”

“I don't know. The Sheriff said he moved out. How am I supposed to know wh-.”

A second later there's an envelope in his lap with the word Pack written on the front. Derek turned around to find Malia in the back seat of the car once again, her eyes slightly wet.

“I'm guessing this is what you're looking for.” She said. Derek turned back around, pulled out of the drive way and drove back to the loft without another word. 

“Did you find him? Where's Stiles?” Lydia demands as soon as they step through the door.

“Find out for yourselves.” Derek says shoving the letter at Isaac, he keeps walking until he reaches the stairs the sinks down onto them. He puts his head in his hands. 

“I guess I'll just read it out loud then.” Isaac stated, then began reading. 

Dear Everyone,

I guess if you're reading this, that means I finally grew a pair and left Beacon Hills. With all the horrible stuff that's happened, I didn't know how you all would feel about it. Then I thought about it, I'm eighteen, I don't have to ask anyone if anything I do is okay with them. If I thought staying here was that important, I wouldn't be writing this. There's too many bad memories in this town, it's hard to get away from it. That's all I'm really doing, get away from all of the bad stuff. I mean C'mon how often does a group of supernatural teenagers have to deal with an Sociopathic Werewolf, a Kanima, and a Pack of Alpha's all while trying to pass high school. It doesn't make sense, shit like this isn't supposed to happen, let alone be real. You guys will do just fine without me, besides, I'm just the useless human. 

-Stiles 

Isaac stops, and looks up, “The date on this is from almost two months ago.” He says hand the letter to Scott who begins to read it over for himself. 

“What are we going to do now?” Lydia asked. 

“We're going after him. If we leave now we ca-.”

“No.” Malia dead pans. “No we're not. You guys didn't see his bedroom. The only things there was the bed and his desk.”

“No signs of someone who expects to be back.” Derek whispers, remembering his mothers favorite song. 

“There's no way that he's coming back anytime soon.” She continues “No matter how hard we could possibly beg him, he doesn't want anything to do with this place. Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't leave sooner. I mean seriously have any of you actually had a decent conversation with him in the last month? Stiles talked about this place like it was his own personal Alcatraz, he hated it. If I were him I would've have left ages ago.” 

“Then what do you suppose we do? Liam asks.

“Nothing.” Derek says loudly. “We're not going to do anything. Stiles obviously wants nothing to do with anything remotely related to Beacon Hills. So for now we need to give him space and time to figure himself out. For now, we go on with our lives. Besides, judging by that letter he's not coming back anytime soon.”

“How long are we supposed to wait for him?” Lydia interjects. “We can't just put our lives on hold waiting for him to come back.”

“So we don't. We keep moving on with our lives, because it's what Stiles would want us to do. Now what movie are we going to watch?”

With reluctant and worried hearts the whole pack did as they were told and waited. One day turned into a week. A week turned into a month. That month became three, and before they knew it no one in the pack had seen or heard from Stiles in over a year. Holidays and Birthdays passed without so much as phone call. After two years, everyone began to lose hope of seeing their sarcastic friend anytime soon.

Things changed over time. The pack nights became few and far between. People started to not show up, for reasons even they couldn't back up. All of them barely saw one another these days, let alone talked to each other. 

Stiles had been gone two years four months and 10 days, not that Derek was keeping track, when he spotted the younger one while out at running errands.

Derek nearly drops his basket full of groceries when he sees Stiles again. Their standing in the middle of the store, with Stiles at the opposite end of the aisle. His hair is matted down opposed to sticking up like usual. He's traded in his signature flannel button down for a knock off, brand name t-shirt. As well as his once lanky arms now appeared to have gained some muscle.

Derek isn't sure if he wants to rip his throat out or hug him. He takes a deep breath, looks down, and closes his eyes. Because shifting in the middle of the store is highly frowned upon in the werewolf community. He then takes a step forward and looks up, fully ready to take whatever could possibly be thrown at him. Yet, just like before, Stiles has disappeared before anyone has a chance to change his mind.

It's later that night when it happens. Derek is at his loft when he feels a sharp pain right below his ribs. A minute later his temple starts to hurt, as well as his right ankle. Someone in the pack is hurt. He's already out the door when his phone rings. The name Stiles lights up across the screen and his stomach flips.

“Hello?”

“Derek?”

“Stiles?”

“Derek y-you gotta come help me.”

“Where are you? What happened?” He said getting into his car.

“I-I don't know, someone broke into my apartment. I think he had a knife- Shit its still bleeding.” 

“Stiles, where are you right now?”

“I'm at the new apartment complex down the street from the high school, it's on the second floor with the door open. Derek please y-you have to come help me. I think my ankle's broken.”

“Don't worry I can see the building, just hang on Stiles.” Derek pulls into the parking lot messily and flies out of the car. He runs up the stairs two at a time and stops in front of the only open door. There's grocery bags and different food items all over the floor. 

“Stiles?” Derek calls. He hears a grunt from inside. He finds Stiles laying against the back of the couch, there's a cut just above his right eye. His ankle is obviously broken and there's a wide gash that's bleeding just below his rib cage.

“Hey Derek.” Stiles rasps. 

“We need to take you to the hospital.” Derek states pulling one Stiles' arms around his shoulders. He gets Stiles into his car and speeds off in he direction of the hospital. He pulls out his phone.

“What are you doing?” Stiles grunts out. 

“Calling someone... Melissa? It's Derek, keep the emergency room open. Something bad has happened, I'm five minutes away from the hospital.” He looks over at Stiles, noticing the growing blood stain on his side and how he's fighting to stay conscious. 

“C'mon Stiles,” Derek says patting his face. “Stay with me we're almost there.”

A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot. Derek hops out and runs around to the other side of the car, helping Stiles out of his car and helping him hobble into the Emergency room. 

“Melissa!” Derek yelled upon bursting through the doors.

“Derek what's so impor- Stiles?” She says surprised. 

"Hey Melissa." Stiles mumbled. Some other nurse showed up with a stretcher, and ordered him to lie down. Then the doctor showed up.

"What do we have here?"

"Young male, early twenties, stab wound…" That's when Derek tuned out of what Melissa was saying. Instead, he continued to follow the herd of medics into the emergency room. He looked down at Stiles, whose face had gone pale. 

"Hey, Stiles look at me, okay? Just look at me."

“Derek I-I can't breathe. I... I can't.”

“I know, I know you just need to stay awake okay? The doctors are going to help you, you just have to stay awake a little longer.”

“M'sorry Derek.” Stiles whispered as his eyes closed shut.

“Stiles?” Derek tried. “C'mon Stiles wake up.” 

In an instant, everything started to happen at once. Half of the machines started beeping like crazy, all of the on call staff seemed to rush in, and Derek was pushed out of Stiles’ reach.

“Wait, Stiles no.” Derek tried as he was shoved to the back.

“Derek you need to leave right now.” Melissa yelled over all the commotion.

“No, I have to-.”

“I don’t care what you think you have to do. Right now, his lung has collapsed and he needs medical help, not any of your supernatural nonsense. If you really want to help, you’ll go sit in the waiting until I come find you.”  
Reluctantly, Derek turned and left the whole commotion for the professionals to deal with. It isn't until Derek sits down that he realizes how bad his hands are shaking. Like a swarm of dragon flies has nested in his bones and decided to move in. The waiting room is empty so he stands in an attempt to stop shaking. He hasn't seen Stiles in nearly two and a half years,now he could die before he has the chance to even have a proper conversation with him. He looks at the clock and realizes that it's only been an hour since Stiles called him. He wonders to himself how so many bad things could happen in such a short period of time.

"Derek?" His snaps up and he sees Melissa.

"Where is he? Is Stiles okay?"

"He's fine, his lung collapsed but the doctors were able to fix it, as well as stitch up his side and his forehead. They also put a brace on his ankle to help him walk. What happened?"

"I don't know, I was at home when he called. He said someone must have broken into his apartment or something. Can I see him?"

"For a little while, but he's sleeping."

"I don't care," He replies. "He's alive, that's the only thing that matters." Melissa nods, then leads Derek back to the emergency room, past all the doctors to an area with a row of beds and curtains. At the end of the row is the only bed with the shades drawn. He gets to the bed, takes a deep breath and pulls back the curtain. Stiles is laying on his back, his head propped up by a pillow with breathing tubes in his nose. Derek has seen the way Stiles sleeps, his limbs are normally all over the place and he tosses and turns constantly, now Stiles just looks uncomfortable. Derek sits down in the chair next to the bed and puts his hand into one of Stiles', not knowing what else to do. He does a once over of Stiles' body and notices a tattoo on his right bicep.

Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward. 

“It's E.E Cummings,” Stiles says. “It's about taking chances... it was my mom's favorite.” 

Derek snaps his head to see Stiles looking at him. He looks back down at the tattoo, “It’s well done.”

“Yeah, I got it in Phoenix a couple days after I left. It hurt like hell but it was worth it.”

“Is that where you went to, Phoenix?”

“Phoenix, Boston, Denver, I saw all of it.” He said groggily. “I went to every state, well at least the ones I could get to by car. It was beautiful, I’d go and do it all over again if I wasn't stuck here.”

“It sounds like quite the adventure.”

Stiles nods. “Yeah it was... did you call anyone?” 

“No, did you want me to?”

Stiles shakes his head. “My Dad doesn't know I'm back yet. I wanted to surprise him with dinner, but I guess it'll have to wait.”

“Well I'm sure he'll be happy to see you.”

“I hope so.” Stiles says quietly, fighting off sleep.

“Get some sleep Stiles,” Derek tells him. “We can call your dad in the morning.”

Stiles nods and falls asleep near instantaneously. It was then that Derek realized just how tired he was as well. He leans forward slightly and rests his head on the bed. Derek doesn't even realize he's fallen asleep until he wakes up the next morning. He's met with a crick in his neck and an empty bed. he looks around but doesn't see Stiles. He stands up and walks out to the waiting room but he doesn't find him there either.

"Can I help you with something?" A nurse at the desk asks.

"Yeah… I'm looking for a patient who was in the emergency room. The last name is Stilinski."

"It appears that he checked himself out about ten minutes ago."

'No, not again' Derek thought to himself. He ran towards the same doors he half carried Stiles through some odd hours before. Outside was bright and noisy, but no sign of Stiles. Derek sees his car and runs right to it, knowing Stiles couldn't have gotten far with a busted foot. When he reaches his car, he doesn't find Stiles. Instead he finds a note in the front seat.

Sorry for taking off again. I didn't know what else to do. Thanks again, Derek. -Stiles

Derek curses under his breath and crumples the letter in his hand, angry that he let Stiles slip away from him so easy. Nothing happens for nearly a week, that is until someone comes knocking at Derek's door.

"Liam, you're part of the pack, you don't have to knock." Derek said, not looking up from his book.

"Well that's reassuring." Stiles said from the door, Derek snapped his head up. "I thought I would have been shunned when I came back."

There he was. Stiles in all his plaid, stitched up and limping glory. 

"What are you Doing here?"

"I wanted to come and give you a proper thank you for helping me. Seeing as I didn't give you much of one at the hospital, I figured doing it in person would be sufficient."

Derek stood up and took a couple steps forward. "You're still here?"

"Yeah, why did you think I took off again?"

Derek nodded.

"Oh… Sorry. I had to go see my Dad, and I didn't want to wake you. I told him about what happened and he helped me file a police report. The perks of being the son of sheriff." Stiles laughed a little then looked around. "Where is everybody?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's the third Friday of the month… isn't it movie night?"

Movie night, Derek had forgotten all about that. "Technically yes, but no one really comes anymore. The tradition sort of died while you were away." 

"Oh. yeah that makes sense." Stiles said looking down. Derek could smell the new found disappointment radiating off of him.

"You thought people would be here? That's why you came by, to see everyone."

"I was hoping," Stiles muttered looking down. "I don't know, I guess should have expected you guys would move on."

"Move on? Really? You know Scott has Lunch with your Dad twice a month just to make sure he's doing okay. When I asked him why he was so persistent on doing it, he told me that he needed to make sure your Dad was still here when you got back. Believe it or not, a lot of people around here noticed when you disappeared. Even more of them actually missed you. Especially the pack.” 

Stiles smiled and looked up. “You know I think that may just be the most I have ever heard you say at one time.”

Derek smiled as well and they both laughed a little. Stiles turned to leave.

“Hey wait,” Derek said stopping Stiles. “I have an idea.” 

Within the next hour everyone in the pack had shown up at the loft. Stiles waited at the top of the stairs for his cue to surprise everyone. 

“Alright, I got your SOS Derek.” Lydia says waltzing in. “What's so important, and why are you smiling like that?”

“Close your eyes, take a deep breathe and tell me what you smell. I think you'll like what you find.” 

Once everyone had closed their eyes, Derek waved at Stiles from the stairs telling him to come down. Scott was the first one to open his eyes, pupils dilated and frantic and looking around for his friend. Stiles made it down the last step. Isaac was next, having realized no scent could be that strong unless they were near by. Liam and Malia were soon after while Lydia just stood there puzzled. 

“Stiles?” said Scott warily.

“Hey Scotty.” Stiles said. With that, Scott nearly knocked Stiles over with his hug. They stayed like that for a minute before Stiles pulled away to hug Lydia who looked like she could cry at moment. Once all the hugging and tears were over, everyone sat down to watch a movie. Derek was getting snacks together in his kitchen when Stiles approached him.

“Thank you,” He said from behind. Derek turned around. “For everything. Seriously I... I don't think I’d even be alive right now if it weren't for you.”

“Anything for pack.” Derek told him. He reached out and pulled Stiles in for a one armed hug. It only lasted a few seconds before they pulled away. It didn't matter to them though. Stiles was back in town, and he had a lot of catching up to do. Derek and Stiles would have plenty of chances to hug later on.


End file.
